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G. VON ARCO AND A. MEISSNER.

CONNECTION FOR ELECTRIC RELAYS WORKING WITH IONIZED GAS GAP.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. I0. 1914. RENEWED JULY I, I918.

1,314,102. Patented Aug. 26, 1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I1- 3 9 6 fig. g 7 4 b l,

G. VON ARCO AND A. MEISSNER. CONNECTION FOR ELECTRIC RELAYS WORKING WITH IONIZED GAS GAP.

APPLiCATION FILED JAN. l0. I9I4. RENEWED JULY l, I916.

Patented Aug. 26, 1919.

3 SHEET SHEET 2.

G. VON ARCO AND A. MEISSNER.

CONNECTION FOR ELECTRIC RELAYS WORKING WITH lONIZED GAS GAP.

APPLiCATION FILED JAN. 10. l9l4- RENEWED JULY l, l9l8. 1, 3 1 1 O2 Patented Aug. 26, 1919.

3 SHEEYS-SHEET 3.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE- GEORG vox ARGO AND mmssnme, or BERLIN, GERMANY.

CONNECTION FOR ELECTRIC RELAYS WORKING WITH IONIZED GAS-GAP Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed January 10, 1914, Serial No. 811,368. Renewed July 1, 1918. Serial No. 242.891.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that we, GEORG VON Anco and ALEXANDER MmssNnR, citizens of the Empire of Germany and the Empire of Austria, respectively, and residing at Berlin, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inGonnections for Electric Relays Working with Ionized Gas- Gap, of which the-following is. a specification.

Our present invention relates to electric relays, particularly to those having an ion= ized gap, the preferred form consisting of a glass vessel partially evacuated or filled with gas at low pressure and which. contains a heated cathode and one or more anodes. The. rays emitted by the heated cathode are supposd to ionize the gas so that a permanent path of current is established through the relay. The currents reinforced by the relay are supplied to 'a circuitcontaining the heated cathode and an auxiliary anode, and strengthened currents thus occurin the circuit containing the cathode and the main anode, increased current being thus obtained from the source of current which supplies the circuit through the maimanode;

In another form the well-known Braun tube is employed, and the oscillations-to be strengthened are supplied to special electrodes between which is led the current of ions which passes from the cathode. to the anode. I

As the operating part, of relays of this character does not possess mass, they are particularly adapted to alternating currents of high frequency in which exact reproduction of changes is important; for example, for special microphone currents and producing strengthened repeated oscillations for wireless telegraphy and telephony.

In this specification we show connections of circuits whichmay co-act with the relay to obtain the reinforced eflect desired; some of these particularly relate to the secondary circuit of the relay, 2'. 6., that to which the stituting a means for reinforcing the efiect of the relay so that very weak currents may readily be strengthened until they are en-' tirely perceptible; this introduces, as we believe, an entirely new. mode of operation. For example, if an electric oscillating system is connected with the relay in the de sired manner, it is possible to maintain permanent oscillations in the system, which is of great importance in wireless telegraphy and telephony, as this makes it possible'for the first time, so far as we are advised, to

produce undamped oscillations of absolutely constant amplitude.

Furthermore, our invention enables specially efl'ective receiving connections to reinforcing which is possible by our invention we can receive oscillations of very low intensity, such as could not be made perceptible by other means, and consequently can increase the range. of wireless communications. I

In the drawings hereto annexed, which show diagrammatically several embodiments of the invention,

Figure 1 is a diagram showing the general principle.

. Fig. 2 shows an application to a wireless receiving system having an indicating instrument connected in circuit.

Fig. 3 shows a similar application in which the indicator is connected directly with the secondary coil of the antenna.

Fig. 4 shows a construction in which a separate detector is omitted.

Fig. 5 shows .an analogous system to Fig. 4, having the primary of the telephone transformer in parallel to the re-coupling coil.

Figs. 6 and 7 show additional forms of circuits adapted to the heterodyne or beat method of operation.

Referring first to Fig. 1. the relay comprises a glass vessel 1 containing three electrodes 2, 3 and 4, of which 2 designates the heated cathode, preferably a .metal filament; the cathode is heated by the battery and emits electrons. The anode 3 generally consists of a wire spiral, and an auxiliary anode 4 is usually a metal grid shutting off more or less the space between the anode and the cathode; while the space between the electrodes2 and 4 constitutes the primary circuit or gap a, and the space between the electrodes 2 and 3 is the secondary gap 1) of the relay. The currents to be reinforced are supplied to the relay over a circuit 7 from the circuit 6,. which may be a long distance. telephone line or the circuit of a wireless telegraph receiving arrangement.

The circuit '6 is coupled with the coil 8 of the circuit 7 in a suitable way, and the circuit 7 is connected both with the cathode 2 and 'the auxiliary anode4. The reinforced currents occur in the circuit 9', which is connected to the. cathode 2 and the anode 3 and contains a source of energy 10; for example, a direct current dynamo or a battery. The strengthened oscillations are conducted from the 'circuit 9 to the coil 11 and thence to a telephone or detector in the circuit.

According to our invention, we connect the circuit 9 by a second linking with the circuit 7; this may be effected by means of the coil 12 connected in the circuit 9 and relay and is again reinforced until by this cumulative action a state of equilibrium is obtained. The coupling between the coil 12 and the coil 8 is preferably made adjustable; by regulating this, the'maximum degree of reinforcement can be readily obtained. I

Fig. 2 shows how the connection can be used as a receiving arrangement in wireless telegraphy, The oscillations received by the aerial circuit 13 pass to the relay from the coupling coil 14, and this forms an inductive coupling of the coil 8 and circuit 7 to the aerial. 'The reinforced high frequency oscillations can then be supplied to a closed circuit 15, containing an-adjustable condenser 17 connected inductively to circuit 9 by the coils 11, 16. The circuit 15 also contains a reinforcing coil 12 by which:

it is coupled inductively to the circuit 7. at 8", this, being preferablyan adjustable coupling, as indicated. The reinforced energy is supplied again to the relay, as above.

The aerial 13 has a tuning condenser 18;

form of detector 19 and condenser 20,

and a detector circuit containing a desired branches from the coil 16 of the circuit 15, to which it isv adjustably connected as shown, the telephone 21 being in parallel With the condenser 20. p In the arrangement so far described, the detector circuit or the indicator 21 is connectedwith the circuit to which the strengthened currents are supplied by the relay.

In Fig. 3, however, we show a receiving connection for wireless telegraphy in which the indicating instrument or detector circuit is connected directly with the secondary antenna coupling coil. In this arrangement the currents to be reinforced are transmitted by the aerial 13 through coils 14, 16 to the circuit 15 and are supplied to the primary circuit 7 of the reinforcing relay from the coil 8. The circuit 9 which carries the reinforcingcurrents is re-coupled by coil 12 with circuit 15. The detector circuit 19, 20, 21 is directly connected to the circuit 15, as before. The advantage of this connection is that the reinforced apparatus can be connected directly to well-known forms of receiving connection.

It is, of course, well known that cathode ray tubes of the general kind described above may be employed as detectors in wireless communication, and in Fig. 4 We show how the detector 19 of Fig. 2, etc., can be dispensed with and the relay can be used as a detector with the described recoupling, the indicating instrument being directly connected to the circuit carrying the reinforced relay currents. The relay connected as described above contains a coil 8 for coupling circuit 7 with the aerial and its' coil 14. The secondary relay cir- 'cuit 9 is re-coupledby the coil 12 with the circuit 7; but this circuit contains also the primary winding 26 of the telephone transformer, to the secondary winding 27 of which the telephone 21 is connected, and an adjustable condenser 28 is connected in parallel with the primary winding 26; of course, the telephone 21 could be connected directly instead of inductively to the circuit 9, as is well understood.

In Fig. 5 we'show how the coil 26 of the telephonejtransformer and the re-coupling coil 12 may be connected in parallel instead of in series, as is the arrangement in Fig. 4.

Inboth Figs. 4 and 5 the high frequency currents received from the aerial are reinforced by the relay 1 and are transformed into audio-frequency currents. secondary currents being repeatedly led into the primary circuit the audio-frequency component is rapidly increased; so that the reinforced audio-frequency currents act on the telephone. If the re-coupling were not present to effect the reinforcing action, these currents would be scarcely perceptible in the telephone 2].; but owing to the recoupling, not only the high frequency component, but also the audio-frequency component is substantially reinforced.

An adjustable condenser 28 is connected in parallel with the transformer primary 26 and admits of the regulation of error received by the telephone from the circuit 2 9; the greater the capacity the smaller'the current in the telephone, the most valuable 10 efi'ect being determined by the relation between the incoming oscillations and that of the circuit, the ad ustment of the condenser having the same influence as a variable coupling between the receiving oscillatory circuit and the detector circuit in former systems of connection. Where the telephone winding 26 is in parallel wlth the re-coupling coil 12, as show n in Fig. 5, an equivalent regulation is obtained by vanable inductance 28 connected in series with the coil 26. The system shown and described with I reference to Figs. 2 and 3 can be adjusted to produce continuous local oscillations in cir- 2 cuit 15, when the coupling between the cir- 4 cuits 15 and 7 of Fig. 2, or 15 and 9 of Fig.

- 3, is made close enough. The arrangement can then be used for receiving undamped oscillations by the' beat or 'heterodyne method described in the introduction to this specification.

The energy which may be produced by the arrangement described may attain a considerable value so that it is well adapted for use for sending in wireless telegraphy.

The reinforced connection may! 'be used for receiving very 'weak currents, by the production of tone lby bringing the received oscillations into interference with the oscillations produced in the receiving circuit in the way abovedescribed, and referred to in our statement of invention, in the so-called beat or heterodyne method.

Fig. 6 shows. a system of connections arranged for this purpose. The oscillations taken up by the aerial 13 are supplied to a tuned intermediate circuit 37 by the coils 14 and 38 and by the circuit through the coils 39 and 16 to the detector circuit. The intermediate circuit and the detector circuit are linked by a coil 43- with a repeating circuit 41, coupling these two circuits, 37 and the detector circuit, by the coils 42 and 40 with the relay system.

The closed oscillatory circuit 31 of the energizing connection transmits its oscillations to the detector circuit, inwhich both sets of oscillations act. If the oscillato circuit 31 is properly tuned so that the oscil 00 lations produced therein differ, by say about 1000 per'second, from those received, then certain oscillations of this period are generated which act as a recti d impulse current and are preceptible in the telephone 21;

thus, by reason of'the great constancy of oscillations produced by the relay, one per-- ceives a ver pure tone in the telephone. While this is being produced, however, 'a considerable reinforcement takes place because the amplitude of the oscillations produced by the relay is made materially larger than that of the incoming wave, the action of the telephone corresponding to (J |J where J and J 2 are the interfering currents.

In this system, if the relay is fed with alternating currents in order to obtain pure tone, it is preferable to select low periodicity :for this current, so that a number of surges is present in each alternation.

The arrangement just indicated allows of the reception of very weak signals from very remote stations which are otherwise scarcely perceptible. Where the incoming signals are sufliciently distinct to be received audibly, this system permits of a selectivity 8 over atmospheric and other disturbances. It

.is only necessary to make the-receiving connection. between the coils 14 and 38 very loose, which is well understood, or to increase greatly the aerial damping, in order to cause the disturbing waves, which are themselves damped, to become less apparent. While the incoming signal trains are thus weakened, these are reinforced by the interference action, as pointed out, and the dis- 'turbing currents are not rei same extent.

Our tests of this receiving action have shown that readily audible tone can be produced when the two oscillations are not even approximately the same, but differ considera' 1y from one another. This is noticeably the casewhen the oscillations at the receivmg station are tuned to approximately an over tone or a sub-tone of the received oscillations, and thus differ by a multiple or subnforced to the -multiple from them; this is particularly producing permanent oscillations in a system connected with it can be used when no s ecial detector is provided (as in Fig. 5) lbr establishing an interference rece tion of a special kind, which enables the signals of a damped or undamped sender to be rein: forced to a high degree; and the arrangement for effecting this is illustrated in Fig.

7, where we employ also the energizing cnnection of the relay shown in Fig. 6. Aerial 13 is directly connected by coils 14 and 40 with the closed oscillatory circuit 31.. The

telephone 21 is connected with the circuit 9, which carries the reinforced oscillations, by the means of'the transformer 26, 27, as in Fig. 5. If the coupling between the coils and 8, (by which the primary circuit of the relay is connected to the circuit'31) is made close enough, the relay acts as above described as a generator, and produces in the circuit 31 oscillations of a frequency which comes into interference with that of the received oscillations, the latter being simultaneously strengthened by the relay. The primary winding 26 of the transformer and the parallel adjustable condenser 28 form an oscillatory circuit, the frequency. of which is varied by the adjustment of the condenser,

and in thls circuit natural oscillations are likewise excited by the relay, so that if it be adjusted to afrequency which corresponds frequency in the circuit 31, the interference tone will then vary the pitch of the permanent ,tone each time, rendering the signals perceptible. Owing to the mode of operation oflthis connectiorna very exceptional reinforcement of .the acoustic action takes place, so that the tone can'be'heard througb' out theroom. The difference between the.

permanent tone and the .tOne which is varied when the wavesarrive can be lncreased when the sender is put out of tune'by depressing. the key; that is, when. a difi'erent wave' is sent in the intervals between sending from that; sent when sending the signals, the interfereiice tone acting on the permanent current bein thereby changed. It is also possible in t iis manner of receiving by in terference to make the permanent tone no longer perceptible when listening for sigr nals; for example, the telephone may be connected with an acoustic or electric resonator which is tuned only to the signal tone, so that only this tone can bedistinctly heard in the telephone; i

Where we use in. the claims the terms converting and indicating means, we mean to express any suitable means' known in the art by which alternating currents such as described are converted or rendered perceptible.

We claim as our invention 1. In an arrangement foramplifying high frequency alternating currentimpulses, t e

combination with an aperiodic amplifying relay. having a primary and a secondary path, means for conducting the weak high frequency impulses through the primary path thereof, a receiving circuit and means for conducting the'amphfied high frequency impulses received at the secondary path to said receiving circuit, means associatedwith said receiving circuit for converting said high frequency impulses into and indicating them as low-frequency impulses; of means for returning the amplified high frequency impulses to said primary path before they are conducted to said converting and indicating means.

2. Inan arrangement for amplifying high frequency alternating current impulses, the combination with a relay having a gaseous primary and secondary path, ionized by an incandescent cathode, means for conducting the weak high frequency impulses through said primary path, a receiving circuit and means for conducting the amplified high frequency impulses received at the secondary path to said receiving circuit, means associated withsaid receivingcircuit for converting said high frequency impulses into and indicating them as low frequency impulses; of means for returning the amplified high frequency impulses to said primary path before they are conducted to said con- I verting and indicating means. I

3. In an arrangement for amplifying high frequency alternating current impulses, the combination with a cathode radiating tube having an incandescent cathode, an anode and an auxiliary anode between the two latter, the path between the cathode and the auxiliary anode forming the primary path,.

the path between the cathode and the anode I forming the secondary path of the. relay, a

receiving circuit and means for conducting the amplified high frequency impulses received at the secondary path to said receiving circuit, means associated with said receiving circuit for converting said high frequency impulses into and indicating them as low frequency impulses; of means for returning the amplified high frequency impulses to said primary path before they are conducted to said converting and indicating means.

4. An arrangement for receiving high fre-' quency electrical oscillations comprising anv antenna circuit, means for amplifying the received oscillations and means for converting same into and indicating same as low frequency oscillations, said amplifying means consisting of an aperiodic relay having an ionized primary and secondary gaseous path, the primary path being suitably ondary path being connected with circuits which directly receive the amplified high frequency oscillations, said latter circuits being connected to said antenna circuit, the seclee \ quency electrical oscillations comprising an antenna circuit, means for amplifying the received oscillations and means for converting same into and indicating same as low frequency oscillations, said amplifying means consisting of an aperiodic relay having an ionized primary and secondary gaseous path,

the primary path being suitably connected with said antenna circuit, the secondary path with circuits which directly receive the amplified high frequency oscillations, said latter circuits being coupled with the cir cuits intermediate the antenna circuits and the primary path, to return the amplified tions.

6. An arrangement for receiving electrical high frequency oscillations comprising an antenna circuit, means fonamplifying the received oscillations and means for converting same into and indicating same as low frequency oscillations, said amplifying means consisting of an aperiodic relay having an ionized primary and secondary gaseous path, the primary path being suitably connected with said antenna circuit, the'secondary path being connected with circuits which directly receive the amplified high frequency oscillations, said latter circuits being coupled with the circuits intermediate the antenna circuit and the primary path to return the amplified high frequency oscillations thereto, and a transformer for coupling said converting and indicating means with one of said circuits which conducts amplified high frequency oscillations.

71 An arrangement for receiving electrical oscillations, comprising an antenna circuit, means for amplifying the received oscillations and means for indicating same, said amplifying means consisting of an aperiodic relay having an ionized primary and secondary gaseous path, the primary path being suitably connected with said antenna circuit, the secondary path being connected with circuits which directly receive the amplified oscillations, said latter circuits being coupled with the circuits intermediate the antenna circuit and the primary path to re turn the amplified oscillations thereto, and atransformer for coupling said indicating means with one of said'circuits which conducts amplified oscillations, and means, conprising an alternating current resistance created in the primary circuit of said transformer for controlling the amount of energy to be received by said indicating means.

8. An arrangement for receiving highfrequency oscillations comprising an electric circuit, means for altering the received high frequency current, "a cathode relay for producing locally an alternating current of frequency different from that received, a grid included in said cathode relay, a circuit supplying the locally produced alternating current to the grid of the relay, and an indicating instrument.

In testimony whereof we afiix our signatures in the presence of two witnesses.

Witnesses:

WoLDEMAR HAUPT, HENRY HASPER. 

